Co-produced by a Queenstown film-maker, skateboarding in
Burma is the unusual focus of a documentary garnering praise
around the world.

Altered Focus: Burma was released online last month
and has already featured on BBC America's First
Person, CNN, Mpora.com, CaughtintheCrossfire.com and
Transworld Skateboarding. The cross-genre documentary was
expected to be mentioned in the next Lonely Planet,
the film's producers said.

The 18-minute film was devised and produced by the three
featured British skateboarders and charts their experiences
in Burma for more than three weeks in 2009. The documentary
records their interactions with Burmese people, many of whom
have never seen skateboarding, and touches upon the politics
of the military-ruled southeast Asian country.

Hot Knees Media camera operator and producer James Holman
(29), a Queenstown resident of 14 months and longtime
skateboarder, joined friends Alex Pasquini (25), also a Hot
Knees camera operator and co-producer, and Ali Drummond (22),
a semi-professional skateboarder; for the expedition.

The media duo always wanted to expand their portfolio from
action sports documentaries to include factual entertainment.

Mr Drummond's enthusiasm for Myanmar was infectious and the
sale of a previous package in Europe financed the trip.

"It was really interesting," Mr Holman said.

"Before we went, we had friends and family stressing about us
going there. We got to Bangkok and applied for our Burmese
visas and a journalist said, 'You can't go in there with
cameras'. He put the fear of God in us."

Mr Holman said the largest Burmese city, Rangoon, was "a wet
and depressing place to be".

The trio were acutely aware they were being watched and
followed.

However, the three did encounter about 10 Burmese teenagers
skateboarding in a 1970s-style skate park who knew the same
skate brands as the Westerners.

Mr Holman said, by contrast, the region of Mandalay was sunny
and warm. The Burmese people were "some of the kindest people
you'd ever meet".

The travellers taught English to Burmese monks in a monastery
in the mornings, then played football with them in the
afternoons.

However, skateboarding was a mystery to the Mandalayans, Mr
Holman said.

"Nobody had seen anything like it. Some of the reactions are
awesome. The camera pans around them and the people are
laughing and clapping."